Unity CEO claims VR hardware hasn't seen true consumer launch

Unity CEO John Riccitiello claims VR and AR devices still haven't done enough to embed themselves in the consumer consciousness.

Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt, as reported by Upload VR, the chief exec offered a rather frank take on the state of the VR industry, suggesting the bulk of headsets on the market right now are effectively 'beta' kits.

"They’re not cheap enough," he explained, "they don’t work well enough, you don’t have enough good control systems, you can’t see your arms and your legs in most of them and use them in an interactive way, there’s not a lot of content."

While it's refreshing to see such an honest assessment, it's only fair to point out that major players like HTC and Oculus are attempting to make VR technology a more viable consumer prospect by cutting prices and developing more accessible, entry-level hardware.

Even so, Riccitiello believes we've yet to witness a true consumer launch, partly because the VR market is still dominated by devs and commercial apps.

"AR and VR is mostly to this day been launched to developers," he added. "I mean, name the content. It's not there yet. It’s not a surprise that the commercial applications have preceded the consumer applications because, at least in my mind, we haven’t seen a consumer launch yet."